Spain in the Eye of the Storm of Jihad

The Islamists are especially interested in converts who have not yet taken on Muslim names and whose official IDs still have their Christian names, so they can purchase weapons without drawing the attention of police.

At least 50,000 Muslim converts are currently living in Spain. Police say that converts are especially susceptible to radicalization because they are facing increasing pressure from Islamists who are calling on them to carry out attacks to "demonstrate their commitment" to their new faith.

Spain has also become a key entry point for human trafficking mafias being used by jihadist veterans seeking to return to Europe after fighting in the Middle East.

"Turkey is the Seven-Eleven of false passports." — Spanish agent working on a human trafficking case.

Spanish security forces have arrested a total of 568 jihadists over the past ten years in 124 separate operations against Islamic terrorism, Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz revealed at an African security conference in Niger on May 14.

Fernández Díaz said that "constant police and judicial actions" have helped Spanish authorities prevent another large-scale terrorist attack similar to the March 2004 Madrid train bombings, in which nearly 200 people were killed and more than 2,000 were injured.

At the same time, Fernández Díaz has warned that it is "very probable" that Islamic terrorists will strike Spain at some point in the future; he has estimated the probability of an attack to be 70%.

At a two-day terrorism conference held in Madrid on April 23 and 24, Fernández Díaz said that at least 115 Spanish jihadists — including at least 15 women — are now known to have joined the Islamic State. He added that 14 jihadists had returned to Spain; nine of those are in prison and five remain free.

In January, Fernández Díaz said the number of Spanish jihadists abroad was 70, which implies a jump of more than 40 new jihadists in the first four months of 2015 alone. In August 2014, the first time that Fernández Díaz provided an official estimate, he said there were 51 Spanish jihadists fighting abroad.

Meanwhile, "dozens" of jihadists and other Islamic radicals are entering Spain from neighboring France, where they are said to be "asphyxiating" due to a government crackdown following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January. (On April 29, French President François Hollande announced that a force of 7,000 troops would be deployed to patrol French streets on a permanent basis.)

According to an anonymous Spanish intelligence operative interviewed by El Confidencial, a media outlet based in Madrid, French jihadists are moving to Spain because they feel they have "greater room for movement" on the Iberian Peninsula. They include individuals "suspected" of being Islamic radicals, but for whom there is insufficient proof for either government to arrest them.

The report says that most of the jihadists from France are moving to Catalonia and Spain's Mediterranean coast, where they are attempting to "blend in" with Muslim communities there. Also known as the Spanish Levant, the region roughly corresponds with what was once known as Xarq al-Ándalus, territories that were occupied by Muslim invaders for nearly five centuries.

Al-Andalus is the Arabic name given to those parts of Spain, Portugal and France occupied by Muslim conquerors (also known as the Moors) from 711 to 1492. Many Muslims believe that territories Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquista of Spain still belong to the realm of Islam. They claim that Islamic law gives them the right to return there and re-establish Muslim rule.

In July 2014, jihadists with the Islamic State produced a video in which they vowed to liberate al-Andalus from non-Muslims and make it part of their new Islamic Caliphate. The video showed a jihadist speaking in Spanish with a heavy North African accent, warning:

"I say to the entire world as a warning: We are living under the Islamic flag, the Islamic caliphate. We will die for it until we liberate those occupied lands, from Jakarta to Andalusia. And I declare: Spain is the land of our forefathers and we are going to take it back with the power of Allah."

A tweeted photo of an Islamic State supporter holding the Islamic State's black flag of jihad in front of Aljafería Palace in Zaragoza, Spain.

Counter-terrorism authorities are now warning that the Islamic State is actively looking for Spanish converts to Islam who possess gun licenses and who can legally purchase rifles and shotguns. The Islamists are especially interested in converts who have not yet taken on Muslim names and whose official IDs still have their Christian names, so that they can purchase weapons without drawing the attention of police.

At least 50,000 Muslim converts are currently living in Spain. Police say that converts are especially susceptible to radicalization because they are facing increasing pressure from Islamists who are calling on them to carry out attacks to "demonstrate their commitment" to their new faith. "Converts are the perfect breeding ground for Islamism," according to a Spanish intelligence operative.

These concerns have been confirmed in a new report published by the Spanish Institute of Strategic Studies, an organ of the Ministry of Defense, which warned that so-called lone wolves pose the biggest threat to Spain and other European countries.

"They are activists who secretly swear allegiance to [Islamic State leader] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and act independently without making contact with anyone, so locating them becomes a living hell," the report said. It added:

"Terrorists no longer need to communicate directly with the leadership of the organization to which they belong, or use the telephone or emails to know exactly what to do, when and under what circumstances. There is no longer any need for prior contact to establish the type of signals to be used, the conditions and dimensions of an attack or any restrictions.

"These tactics end the dream of the intelligence services to control everything through the systematic interception of communications and the use of satellite imagery. If there is no communication, it is not possible to intercept anything."

Spain has also become a key entry point for human trafficking mafias being used by jihadist veterans seeking to return to Europe after fighting in the Middle East. A report prepared by Spanish border police identifies three main routes of entry — Africa, South America and Europe — and warns that human trafficking is "more lucrative than cocaine trafficking."

According to the report:

"The proliferation of organizations trafficking in human beings and taking advantage of counterfeit documentation is resulting in the introduction of thousands of people into European countries. The problem is compounded when one considers that European jihadist veterans who have fought in Syria and Iraq on behalf of the Islamic State are using the same networks to facilitate their return. Many have arrest warrants in different countries (Spain, France, UK, etc.) and Islamic State members may cross our borders to carry out terror attacks in Europe."

In November 2014, police in Madrid arrested 18 individuals — eight Lebanese, four Spaniards, three Syrians, one Ecuadorian, one Moroccan and one Ukrainian — accused of running smuggling operation to bring people from Syria into Spain. Police estimate that the cell, which had branches in Lebanon and Turkey, generated earnings of between €50,000 ($55,000) and €100,000 ($110,000) each month. According to one of the agents working on the case, "Turkey is the Seven-Eleven of false passports."

Meanwhile, at least 60 jihadists in Catalonia are said to be waiting for a signal from the Islamic State to attack, according to the Madrid-based El País newspaper. The warning was given during a closed-door meeting of anti-terrorism police held in late April in Viladecans, a town near Barcelona.

The unofficial meeting was convened after a counter-terrorism operation in Catalonia was compromised, when some jihadists were allegedly tipped-off that they were about to be arrested. Although the exact circumstances of the imbroglio remain unclear, it appears to have been the result of poor inter-agency coordination between counter-terrorism police in Madrid and Catalan police known as the Mossos d'Esquadra. The two groups were apparently investigating the same Islamist cell without consulting each other.

The meeting in Viladecans, attended by 130 agents from different police forces — Mossos, Civil Guards, national and local police — from across the country, got together to discuss their mutual concerns about "the lack of training of law enforcement to combat jihadist terrorism."

Much of the daylong meeting was used to share information about how to detect "radicalization processes" and how to distinguish ordinary Muslims from Salafists and jihadists. A counter-terrorism specialist said that one of the key problems faced by police is that "jihadists have infiltrated society, they drink alcohol, eat pork and dress like a Westerner and are undetectable."

One of the organizers of the event, Alex Pérez of a local branch of the International Police Association, said:

"We go out on the street every day but we do not have the tools needed to combat threats against the public. Some of us are digging into our own pockets to train ourselves, protect ourselves and provide an adequate service to society."

Another police officer summed it up this way: "We are screwed and will be much worse off in the future because there are radicals increasingly inclined to attack."

Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-basedGatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him onFacebook and onTwitter.

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9 Reader Comments

Joe Smith • Jun 10, 2015 at 05:51

The above commenter had it right, the leftists hate Western civilization and when Christianity is chased from the public square, the left will make sure that the void is filled by Islam.

It is absolutely astonishing to see the cultural suicide of Europe occur so quickly and in my lifetime.

I also marvel in disbelief about why the West allows the immigration of Muslims who will surely not assimilate into Western culture. Instead they will bring their Islamic totalitarian political cult into their new country to re-create the hellhole they left. And our governments encourage this cultural suicide! Where are the moral leaders? Who will stand up and resist this onslaught of Islam?

It's already essentially too late in Europe, and I'm afraid the USA will be next. We reap what we sow indeed.

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Nora • Jun 8, 2015 at 03:03

I'm Spanish and live in Catalonia, pretty much in the eye of the storm. I get bombarded on a daily basis with a barrage of do-goodism, multi-culti mantras, hate-the-white-man subliminal messages and the like. It's gotten so bad that I now just skim mainstream media for the "main" headlines and then resort to the "alternative" ones to get some real news.

Spain has become the land of political correctness long after the nations which probably invented the concept are starting to question it openly. The level of national debate, on this and many other issues, is a public disgrace, an embarrassment to those of us who, having lived in truly free, modern and democratic nations, have had to return to a country where critical thinking is not only not encouraged, but openly frowned upon and even penalised.

Spain has learned NOTHING from its troubled, Islam-ruled past. Whenever I open one of my children's history textbooks, the mantras are always the same: Arab rule brought enlightenment and modernisation to what had previously been an obscure and backward territory. The bloodshed, the oppression, the dhimmitude are not mentioned or just tip-toed around in the best of cases.

The overall level of English in Spain is simply abysmal: 80% of our business people and politicians can't hold a simple conversation in the language, and those of us that speak it at native level are a tiny minority. Other languages, such as French or German, do not even come into the equation. Therefore, there's little or no access to foreign sources that explain the stealth but relentless Islamisation of the West.

You reap what you sow, and this is unfortunately the case in Spain, a country with no clear references or values which has been taken over by political correctness and do-goodism and which has chosen to forsake the teachings of history. A real shame.

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Anson E. Long • Jun 7, 2015 at 20:01

"They claim that Islamic law gives them the right to return there and re-establish Muslim rule."

How nice for them. No one else recognizes their supposed right.

As for Booboob@st@rd Alkalaldehyde & his ilk: I say to the Islamocrats as a warning: You can keep your Islamic flag & Islamic caliphate to yourself. Otherwise, after you die for it, you will never be able to do anything else. And I declare: Just as I am not going to take the lands of my own ancestors, you will never take Spain--inshallah.

P.S. *Santiago!*

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MKI • Jun 7, 2015 at 15:58

Why does the mainly Christian West allow Muslims to migrate into their countries in the first place?

The West allows mass migration of millions of Muslims into their countries despite them not integrating, raping Western women and girls on an industrial scale, trying to impose their barbaric set of laws known as Sharia, freely preaching their religion to convert perfectly normal people to become mass killing jihadi terrorists, constantly planning and actually carrying out terrorist attacks, demanding special privileges etc...

Muslims have made a mess of or completely destroyed their native countries. They then migrate to the Christian/Secular West and contribute to the rapid decline of those countries.

This is nothing less than a conquest by a barbaric force and the West is doomed because -- it does not understand the nature of the threat. People who understand the threat and warn are shouted down as bigots and Islamophobes, political correctness, useful idiots of the far left along with utterly stupid Christian clergy and perceived economic advantages trumping serious questions of security.

Bye Bye West, it was nice having you around while it lasted.

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al • Jun 6, 2015 at 11:20

Andalus returns. Let us see how long the Spanish live like second class citizens. Enjoy your future!

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Uzi Lowenthal • Jun 6, 2015 at 10:58

I think that the Spanish people who are very anti-Israeli do not know why...we haven't been around since 1492 when we were expelled. It seems like El Cid will have to be resurrected to save them from the moors again?

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Mike Briggs • Jun 6, 2015 at 09:31

Re: "We are screwed and will be much worse off in the future because there are radicals increasingly inclined to attack."

Not just Spain, but the whole world is falling into the hands of the radical Islamists...because nowhere except Israel are we serious about stopping them! Even the U.S. is increasingly at risk!

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Wallace Schwam • Jun 6, 2015 at 09:17

The Spanish now have to pay for their "original sin". That happened when the train bombing of 2004 persuaded them to withdraw from the Iraqi coalition. They voted in a new prime minister who waved a huge white flag for all to see. The message was clear: "Kick me and I will cower". It remains to be seen how many kicks the Europeans will take. Their other act of cowardice, blaming Israel, hasn't bought them much time.

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chris • Jun 6, 2015 at 08:29

Only training they need to stop jihadists is on the rifle range, shoot to kill.